Articles for tag: Preacher’s Kid

March 25, 2018

Christian Standard

Surprised by Life

(This article originally appeared in the April 2013 issue of Christian Standard)   By Daniel Schantz To a child, a cemetery is the perfect playground. It has a hundred hiding places, and if you fall down, the grass is very forgiving. I was 7 years old, playing hide-and-seek in the cemetery next to the country church, just outside of New Antioch, Ohio, where my father preached. “Don’t play on the graves,” my mother warned. “It’s disrespectful.” “OK,” I said, but I didn’t see it her way. I thought that if I were buried in the ground I would get really

January 24, 2016

Christian Standard

Protecting Your PK

By Angela Sanders I am a minister”s wife. I have the scars to prove it, but my children don”t. Not because they didn”t see. Not because they didn”t hear. Not because we lied to them. We didn”t. Hunter and Hope came through an enemy attack on their family by church members with their optimism, faith, and desire to serve the body intact. This was possible only because a few who had successfully waded through the murky waters of vocational ministry ahead of us were selfless enough to take us by the hand and teach us to survive and thrive””and maintain

September 18, 2015

Christian Standard

My Father, My Preacher

By Emerson Kennedy Have you ever wondered how much preachers actually do? Some people think ministers preach on Sunday mornings””and that”s all. Had my father not been a preacher, I might have been inclined to agree. However, as a preacher”s kid my entire life, I can say without any hesitation there is a lot more to a preacher”s service than what happens on Sunday mornings. I grew up in a small church of about 100 in western Maryland. And, like all churches, our congregation came with its own set of problems. I want to take you behind the scenes of

May 26, 2013

Christian Standard

The Envelopes, Please

By Daniel Schantz   I have enjoyed a lifelong romance with envelopes. When I was just a boy, my preacher-father supplied me with several boxes of leftover offering envelopes to play with. I have been in love with envelopes ever since. About the size of an index card, these little envelopes gave me much pleasure. We lived in Springfield, Ohio, at the time, the city where I was born. My cousins lived there, too, and on Saturdays we held a secret club meeting in a dusty corncrib, organized by my oldest cousin, Carol. She appointed herself president of the club, but the purpose of the

February 1, 2012

Christian Standard

The Homes Where Preachers Live

By Mark A. Taylor Most of us have heard stories or read books about preacher”s kids gone bad. We know about unwed pregnancies, unsavory addictions, and other unwise choices among young people who grew up in a parsonage. Without a doubt, the preacher”s home may face unique pressure and scrutiny. That”s why it”s appropriate for us to dedicate several posts to the problems and possibilities shared only by preacher”s kids. But I”m glad to say this week we present far more of the latter than the former. All these articles were written by preacher”s kids who are happy about their

January 31, 2012

Christian Standard

Seven Heavens

By Daniel Schantz Heaven is probably not the word my mother would use to describe the seven parsonages I lived in, growing up in the 1950s. But, being a child, I was utterly unaware of the things that drove my mother to the brink of breakdown: carpets the color of dried blood, a 10-by-10 kitchen with no windows, and one bathroom for eight people. I was much too busy having fun to notice details like that. Anywhere was Heaven to me, as long as we were all together. Thousands of stories have been written about parsonages because they are different

January 30, 2012

Christian Standard

A Preacher”s Kid”s Hopes for His Own PKs

By Shan Caldwell I was born a preacher”s son. As such, I felt it was my duty to help my dad out as much as I could. I thoughtfully provided sermon illustration fodder for the first 16 years of my life. I enlivened dull sermons by whispering or passing notes, obliging my father to interrupt his message by calling me out””by name””in front of the whole congregation. My dad may not have always appreciated my “help,” but I did (and do) appreciate growing up in a preacher”s family. My dad traveled in evangelistic work for the first six years of

January 29, 2012

Christian Standard

How to Help a Preacher’s Kid

By Charity M. Walker-Byers I am a preacher”s kid. Being a PK has influenced every part of my life. It has influenced my values, my self-concept, and my life goals. I have lived through the joys and challenges of growing up in a ministry family. I know what it is like to be proud of a father and mother who give all they have to the service of God. I also know what it”s like to have my family life centered on, and at times almost overtaken by, service to God. Growing up as a preacher”s kid taught me the

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